New Boots

I've been out looking for a good compliment to the new double-knee cotton twill everyday pants that you can wear on a bicycle pants that I introduced at the Seattle Bike Expo last weekend and I think I've found the fit.

I've been digging the crepe-soled moc toed work boot for decades.  Back in the eighties I had a pair when I worked construction - I think I got them at Montgomery Wards - I gave them to my roommate after the county required us to wear steel-toed boots.  I try to buy American whenever possible and nearly everyone knows that Red Wing makes a super sweet version of this style, but at $225 I had a hard time jumping in.

Thankfully I just found Thorogood Boots.  At $140 the cost of entry isn't too crazy.  I found mine at Whistle Workwear, I had to get EE's in order to walk out of the store with a shoe box in hand, they are a little wide but that's the price you pay for impatience.

The boots are comfortable and sturdy and I think that they are going to break in well.  I think that they might work well for dry weather hunting, perhaps the crepe sole will be a little quieter than the clunky logger boots that I traditionally wear out in the field.  The Thorogood's go well a pant with a little wider cuff.  My double knee twill pants (watch www.greenliteheavyindustries.com for the DK Pant) have an eight inch cuff and that seems to work perfectly.

2013 Bike Expo

Spent the weekend at the Seattle Bike Expo, this was my first experience actually getting out there and selling product.  I really worked hard on making a nice booth; something that showed I’m willing to go the extra mile.  I think that the work paid off.

My buddy Joe came down to help me man the booth, I was on my own for a little while Sunday afternoon and I’m telling you it sure is good having a friendly face to talk to and to have someone manning the battle stations while you rush off to the bathroom – once again too much coffee.  Joe is a great salesman and I learned a lot just watching how he interacted with the customers.  He was cool, enthusiastic and confident without being pushy.

Saturday was a long day: 9-6; we arrived at 7:30 and so Joe and I were on our feet for eleven plus hours.  Sunday was 10-4, given that we’d sprung forward the night before I was happy for the late start.  By the time four o-clock rolled around I was done – physically and mentally.

My son helped out Sunday afternoon and he was awesome.  I certainly wouldn’t have been out there talking to customers when I was fifteen.  I would have been hiding out somewhere no doubt about that.

All in all it was a great experience: made some sales, got some awesome feedback, meet some extremely cool people.  This doing your own business thing is a real rollercoaster: one minute you’re totally stoked that you did the right thing, the next minute you’re head in hand asking “what the hell was I thinking?”  Right now I’m in the totally stoked mode.

Blood on the Ice

Attended a small town hockey game here in McCall, Idaho.  What an awesome slice of America.

Cleaning the blood off of the ice

Kitchen Window

Saw this guy and his buddy playing outside of the kitchen window yesterday so I was ready with the Nikon V1 when he showed up again today.

Washtucna

On the road to McCall, Idaho and stopped in Washtucna, WA for some photo ops.

Curing TMCS

I’m reluctant to buy the Garmin GPS bike computer because I already have a GPS on my fancy Windows 8 smart phone.  However, there are two problems with using a smart phone as a bike computer: one phones are not weatherproof so you can’t mount them in a visible location (i.e. to your handlebars) and two the phone (at least my phone) goes into sleep mode when inactive for sixty seconds – so I’d have to touch my phone every minute to keep my stats visible - not possible while wearing gloves.  It seems that these smart dudes at WahooFitness have come up with a solution.

This appears to be a sweet set-up.  You get your HR data from a chest strap, you get the cadence from a bike mounted sensor and you get all the other GPS type stuff from your smart phone.  What a great solution for TMCS (Too Much Crap Syndrome).  Only problem is that it isn’t available for the Windows Phone.  Screwed again

The Crap We Cherish

Yesterday my son and I stopped by an estate sale on our way home from a morning of skiing at Alpental.  I guess I’ve never actually been to an estate sale before, and I must say I found it a bit depressing: you simply walk into a home where everything looks kind of normal – albeit with small stuff scattered all around – the only real difference being the small price tags attached to everything.  It was easy to see that the folks had lived in the house for quite some time and that they were fairly affluent, but honestly most of the stuff was junk: a dusty sewing machine, an old typewriter (my son didn’t even know what it was), and random glasswear.  I suppose that maybe there had been some descent furniture at one time, but anything of value had either already been sold or carted away for sale at a higher price.

All of this stuff had been purchased, used and held onto by the former owners of the house, but in the blink of an eye it all went from cherished possessions to nearly worthless junk that was being sold for a nickel or a dime.  It was a wakeup call for me as to determining what is important and what isn’t.  Family, friends and a few things that are actually worth owning (like a good bicycle) that’s what’s important, the other stuff, well someday that’s all going to be garbage.

Pick your crap wisely.